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|                         Gauntlet FAQ - NES                        |
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v.Open  12/31/00

Original author Dragooneth (Dragooneth@hotmail.com)

An 8 bit NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) game presented by Tengen
and developed by Atari.

Gauntlet is a registered trademark of Atari.

-----------
| IMPORTANT |
-----------

THIS FAQ IS ____NOT____ COPYWRITED.

WEBMASTERS : FEEL FREE TO POST THIS GUIDE ON YOUR SITE.  YOU
DON'T HAVE TO ASK.

This guide is always available at http://www.gamefaqs.com It's the one
stop for your gaming needs.

---------
| Updates |
---------

vBeta - Got all the majority of the faq written
v.2   - Added all the secrets of world 1!
        Fixed some spacing, grammer, etc.
        Changed "power" to HP.
        Added extended HP growth on the Elf.
        Updated the World 1 map
         -Lvl 11 does exit to lvl 12
         -Lvl 5 has a hidden exit to lvl 9
vOpen - I recently lost all the information I had on this game.  I had
        everything through world 2 but it has all been lost.  That's
        why I am opening this FAQ up to anyone who is interested in
        added or completing it.

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| TABLE OF CONTENTS |
-------------------

Copywrite
Special Thanx
Introduction
Story
Characters
Warrior
Valkeryie
Wizard
Elf
Basic Gamplay
Enemies
Special Items
Maps
Secrets

-----------
| COPYWRITE |
-----------

WEBMASTERS : FEEL FREE TO POST THIS GUIDE ON YOUR SITE.  YOU DON'T HAVE
TO ASK.

This guide is ___NOT___ copy writed.  All rights unreserved.  All lefts are 
available.

This document is open to the public.  It may be changed as long as it is in 
beneficial.  If you would like to add to or correct wrong information found 
in this FAQ, feel free too.  As a matter of fact, I encourage you to do so!

Why am I doing this?

Well there are a lot of reasons.  Number 1 is I don't care about 
recognition.  I could care less who knows that I started this faq.  Chances 
are very few people play this game anymore anyways.  So I could care less 
honestly.

Number 2 is for the few of you that do love this game I know one of you will 
finish this faq eventually.  Since I'm not going to work on it anymore I 
leave my work to anyone that is willing to finish it.

Why are you giving up your faq?

As I said before I'm done with this FAQ.  I've kinda lost interest in the 
game and the big reason is about a month ago I had everything through world 
2 done and I lost the whole damn FAQ.  I really don't feel like doing 
allllll that work again.

Oh, yea and feel free to distribute this guide any way you like.

Oh and if you paid money for this guide then you got ripped off because
its available for free at http://www.gamefaqs.com and god knows where
else. :)

---------------
| Special Thanx |
---------------

CjayC  For running the best gaming site on the net and hosting all of
my guides

Atari  For making such an awesome game!!!

Tengen  For making the game come to the nes.

TSR - The manual god.  I don't know who you are but you are a life
saver.  You saved me from having to type out a lot of stuff from the
manual.  Thank you so much!

The game manual  Man is this thing ever packed with information.  It
helped so much in making this guide.

Dragooneth -  For starting this guide.

--------------
| INTRODUCTION |
--------------

Gauntlet is one of the coolest games ever made on the NES.  It has so
many secrets and is just an all around awesome game.  I can't believe
no one has made a faq for this game yet.  I've looked everywhere on the
net for a guide but I just can't find one.  So I decided to make my
own.  Ya I know its going to be a lot of work but since I love this
game its going to be a lot of fun as well.

If any of you care I just got all four of my wisom teeth cut out of my
mouth about 4 days ago.  I was asleep when they did it but man does it
hurt like crazy now.  Hopefully this guide will keep me busy and make
it so I can concentrate on something other than on the pain.

-------
| STORY |
-------
(Taken from the manual)

The story of the Sacred Orb

The black clouds swirled over the heads of the chosen ones.  Four has
come this far, but only two would continue.  The portal to their deadly
challenge awaited.  Foreboding screams rose up from the Gauntlet.

Morak the Evil One cackled in glee as he watched the intrepid warriors
prepare to enter his most terrible Gauntlet.  He knew they would never
reach their goal.  The Sacred Orb would remain forever imprisoned at
the lowest level of the Gauntlet. Without the Sacred Orb, Morak knew
the mortals that inhabited Rendar would be helpless against his evil
magic.

Morak had plundered the lands and hidden his booty in the Gauntlet.
He garrisoned his henchmen in the Gauntlet to guard it.  There were
ghosts, grunts, demons, sorcerers, and even incarnations of death
itself.

But could the Sacred Orb be in the Gauntlet? No mortal knew for sure.
If nothing else, the warriors could retrieve the treasures of Rendar
that Morak had plundered and stored in the Gauntlet.  If only all four
warriors could all continue, on this, the last leg of their quest.
Alas, the portal only allowed passage of two mortals.

The warriors need your help. Choose from among them the two that shall
continue: Become Thor the warrior, Thyra the valkyrie, Merlin the
wizard or Questor the elf.

The fate of Rendar is in your hands.

------------
| CHARACTERS |
------------
(also from the manual.  handy little tool isn't it?)

So who's it gonna be.  The "me strong, you not, I kill"- warrior?  The
sexy, speedy and good all around valkyrie.  The all powerful mage?  Or
that speedy little bastard? Each character has their own strengths and
weaknesses.  The key to playing any character is to use thiers honed
skills to you advantage.
Table of abilities for the four characters (5 is the hightest rating)

***********
* Warrior *
***********

My opinion:  This guy absolutely sux.  He is terrible.  He can't shoot
through diagonal sections of walls!  He also is freaking retarded with
potions.  You will get your but kicked if you use him.

Overall: 1/4

Starting HP     : 980
Armor strength  :   4
Shot strength   :   5
Magic strength  :   1
Fighting ability:   5
Player speed    :   1

*************
* Valkeryie *
*************

My opinion:  She is good.  No overall weaknesses.  Fast, good
firepower, good defense.  I used her a lot.

Overall: 3/4

Starting HP     : 900
Armor strength  :   5
Shot strength   :   2
Magic strength  :   2
Fighting ability:   3
Player speed    :   3

**********
* Wizard *
**********

My opinion:  Hmm... Not good not bad.  Just kinda soso.  He has
potential because of his good magic and firepower but his defense just
isn't good enough.

Overall: 2/4

Starting HP     : 800
Armor strength  :   1
Shot strength   :   4
Magic strength  :   5
Fighting ability:   1
Player speed    :   3

*******
* Elf *
*******

My opinion:  This guy rules!!!  If you are playing alone play the elf.
He is so freaking fast you'll love it.  He has no weaknesses
whatsoever.  Once you get a power up shot you'll be doing as much
damage as a warrior and when you finally pick up that extra armor power
you'll be almost invincible.  I'm telling ya this guy is the man.  He
is awesome in the treasure rooms and because of this your HP will grow
very quickly so you don't have to worry about dying very often.  With
his speed you'll be able to outrun anything, including death, and
you'll be able to complete levels faster so you lose less energy.

Overall: 4/4

Starting HP       : 820
Armor strength    :   2
Shot strength     :   2
Magic strength    :   3
Fighting ability  :   1
Player speed      :   5

50 Treasures HP  : 940
100 Treasures HP : 1060
200 Treasures HP : 1180
400 Treasures HP :
800 Treasures HP :
1600 Treasures HP:


***************
* At a Glance *
***************

Ability                 Warrior  Elf  Wizard  Valkyrie

Armor                     4       2     1       5
Fight/Shot Power          5       3     3       3
Magic                     1       3     5       2
Player Speed              2       5     3       3

******************
* Basic Gameplay *
******************

Ok.  The whole idea of the game is too get through each level and find
the exit to the next level, all the while trying not to get killed.
Sounds easy enough right! Well, you'd be surprised how hard that simple
little concept is.

Here's what you need to know to be able to identify:

Exits -  Little black square that says "exit"(DUH!!!).  Step into this
and you go to the next level.  Some levels have no exits!  Others have
multiple ones.  Sometimes they are hidden and somewhere in the dungeon
there is an exit that will automatically kill you.

Walls - Various colored...eh... walls.  You can't walk through em so go
around em.  Some walls look solid but can be destroyed.  Any
suspiscious looking wall is usually a fake wall and can be destroyed.
These walls lead to the really good stuff in the dungeons and secret
exits!

Doors/Keys -  You need keys to open doors and you need doors to use
keys.  Don't open every door you find as there may be no need to.  Save
those keys for when you need them.

Potions - The "kill everything on the screen with a push of a button
before I die and have to start all over life saver".  There are two
types of bomb potions: Destructible and indestructible. Destructible
bombs will activate when shot and indestructible bombs will not. Beware
of bottles that look like potions but aren't they are poison and will
take away 100 HP.

Treasure - What good is risking your neck if you can't get rich?!  Pick
up all the loot you can carry and reap the benefits!  Literally.  The
more treasure chests you pick up the more your maximum HP will go up.
Can't beat that!  Beware of being too greedy though.  Because after you
pick up too much treasure you password will stop working!

Bags of Jewels -  OO . Now that's what I'm talking about.  These are
pretty rare in the dungeon but they're worth 3 regular treasures so
they are worth the extra effort to find.

Food - Those adventurers are braver than I am.  If I found a bowl of
food or cider sitting in the corner of a dungeon with the symbols "XXX"
on it I doubt I'd eat/drink it... Oh well they seem to like it just
fine and it restores 100HP.

Movable Walls - Pretty self explanatory here.  Their walls but you can
move 'em.  They don't just move up down left right either.  They can
move in digonals and all whichways, so you don't have to worry about
getting stuck.

Stun Floors - These things are nasty.  Sometimes on the floor of the
dungeon tiles are placed randomly and when an unexpected victim walks
over them they are frozen in time for several seconds.  Enemies
instinctively know where these are and won't walk over them.  The
"careful" adventurer will avoid them if possible. (they are easy as
hell to spot)

Magic Tiles - These are cool.  They can appear almost anywhere and
always open up some part of the level.  They glow and constantly flash.
As a general rule all ways use them.

---------
| ENEMIES |
---------

Oh yea there are plenty of em in this game.  TRUST ME.  I would love to
know how many enemies you have killed by the time you beat this game.
It has to be in the 100,000's if not 1,000,000's.  Anyone wanna keep
track for me?  1...2...3.. Hehe.

********************
* Enemy Generators *
********************

Some enemies just occupy the dungeon and have always been there.  More
than likely though if there are monsters around there are also monster
generators around.  These hand dandy little contraptions spew out
monsters-NONSTOP-until you manage to destroy the things.  They come in
3 flavors.  Easy, medium, and hard.  How do you tell them apart?  Easy
if they look small or kinda simple in construction then they are easy.
If they look big or pretty elaborate or big in construction they are
hard.  If you're not sure it's probably the medium one.

So what does each one do?  Welllll, the easy ones produce monsters that
take 1 hit to kill, the medium one produces monsters that take 2 hits
to kill, and take a wild guess at what the 3rd one does.  Yep.
Produces monsters than takes 3 hits to kill.

Note that the 1,2,3 hits are just easy ways of explaining how hard guys
are to kill.  Depending on the your characters strength you maybe able
to kill a level 3 monster in 2 hits rather than 3.  It just depends.

************
* Bad Guys *
************
(Courtesy of the manual and my added insight :)

Ghosts:
They attack once, and vanish taking some of your power as they go.
Easy to kill not much of problem.

Grunts:
They continuously pound on you with their clubs. You really don't want
to get surround by these guys or your butt will be toast.  They aren't
that tough though.

Demons:
Their are two kinds of these.  The ones that shoot and the ones that
don't.  The ones that shoot are deadly.  Take care of them ASAP. They
hurt bad and they shoot almost nonstop at you.  The other kind is the
ones that don't shoot.  These are easy.  Nothing to worry about.

Death:
This evil black creature will chase you and drain 200hp before
vanishing. Your shots have no effect on Death.  I hate these guys the
only wasy to kill them is to use a potion. I say run from them and just
avoid them all together if at all possible.

Acid puddles:
They wander randomly.  Stupid monsters if you ask me.  No real threat.
You can't kill them with attacks so don't bother.  Potions don't don't
work either.   Go figure.  Don't worry though because they are
basically harmless and you can avoid them pretty easily.

Sorcerers:
They have the power of invisibility. They blink onto the screen and
thenblink off. They are tough to destroy since they cannot be shot when
they areinvisible.

Super sorcerers:
They vanish, appear behind you and shoot you. Then they vanish again.
These things are freaking awful.

Lobbers:
They run away from you, but then they turn around and throw rocks at
you - even over walls.  More annoying than anything, as their rocks
really don't hurt that bad.

---------------
| SPECIAL ITEMS |
---------------
(Again from the manual)

Magic potions are hidden in the rooms. If you collect these potions,
you can increase your abilities. Each time you collect an extra
ability, it is shown in the Pause Screen with your statistics. You have
it for the rest of the game. Extra abilities only work once for each
player.

  Potions

Extra armor       : Reduces the damage you take. [shield]
Extra magic       : Increases damage a bomb can do. [little bottle]
Extra shot power  : Increases the damage your shots do. [black spot]
Extra speed       : Increases your speed. [arrow]
Extra melee power : Do more damage in hand to hand fighting [knife]

In addition to the extra ability potions, you can also collect
temporary abilities. These last only a little while and are not shown
in the Pause Screen.

Temporary Invisibility:
Enemies cannot find you. [white box with three lines]

Temporary Repulsion Amulet:
Enemies run away from you. [orange box with three lines]

Temporary Reflective Shots:
Your shots bounce off walls  [white box with arrow]

Ten Super Shots:
Your shots destroy everything, including doors. [orange box with arrow]

Temporary invulnerability:
You have perfect armor for awhile, but your hp goes down twice as fast.
[black box]

------
| MAPS |
------
(Thanks to TSR for this)

As you play the game, a map of each world is shown between rooms. You
can chart your progress and see which rooms are conected together. Some
room shave more than one exit so you may want to record which exits
lead to which rooms. The treasure rooms are shown with a $ in the map.
Clue rooms which contain a clue to the final combination are shown with
?. The final conbination is explain in the Collected Wisdom of World
Five. These maps are considered accurate. Merlin's apprentice acquired
them from Vellum the Mapmaker - the very same mapmaker Morak used to
chart his Gauntlet.

Map of World One: The Castle

Your journey begins in the Castle World. Since it exists on the edge of
the Veil, other mortals have ventured into the Castle. Many explorers
have risked life and limb to bring back what little we know about the
Castle.


                    $19 - L18 - L17
                     |     |     | Hint: In room 16, try shooting solid
                    ?16 - L15 - L14      walls - one might disappear
                                 |       when shot.
        $08 - L09 - L10   L12 - $13
      /        |        \  |  /
  L07 - L06 - L05 - $04   L11
               |        \
              L01 - L02 - L03


Map of World Two: The Dark Forest

The dark reaches of this Forest world are unknown to mortals. Rumors
and fables abound. Most of what is known comes from the tales told of
the ancient time when chaos rules.


  L20               L37 - L38 - L39         Hint: The clue is in a
   |                 |        \  |                treasure chest.
  L21               $36         L40 - $41
   |  \              |
  L23   L22   L33 - L34 - L35
   |  /        |     |     |
  $24   ?20   L32 - L30 - L31
   |  /              |
  L25 - L27 - L28 - $29


Map of World Three: The Lost Caverns

The cave-like rooms of the caverns are haunted by many of the
horrendous fiends from the Unseen.


              L56 - $55 - ?54 - L53
               |        \        |           Hint: You may find a room
  L59 - L60 - L57         L52 - L51                in world three with
      \        |                 |                 treasure and bombs
        $62 - L58               L50 - $49 - L48    that you cannot get.
            \  |                       |     |
              L61               L45 - L44   L47
                                 |     |     |
                                L42 - L43 - L46


Map of World Four: The Unseen

The world of the Unseen holds a formidable challenge. Could you
possibly be blind? The walls are not there yet they are in this watery
world.

                    L63 - L64
                           |
                          L65     Hint: Invisible walls may be
                        /  |            destructible walls as well.
        $78 - L77   ?66 - $67
         |     |        \  |
  L74 - L75 - L76         L68
   |     |                 |
  L73 - L72 - L71 - ?70 - L69


Map of World Five: Volcana, Lair of the Guardian

Lava flows on all sides. You know this is the last leg of the journey,
but the Guardian awaits.


                    ?90 - L91 - $92 - L93
                     |  /              |      Hint: You have to find
              L88 - L89         L95 - L94 - L97     your way to room 94
               |                 |     |     |      which leads to the
  L85   L86 - L87               L96   L99   L98     Guardian.
   |  /                                |
  L84   L82 - ?81                    L100
   |     |     |
  L83 - L79 - L80

---------
| SECRETS |
---------
World one is now done.

Recommended path for World 1.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-19

Lvl 1 - In the upper right hand corner (by all the ghosts) their is a
secret exit to level 5.  Shoot the walls to find it.

Lvl 5 - Lots of gold in the upper left hand room.  If you have an extra
key you should use it here.  Just to the right of the treasure room is
a secret exit to level 9.  You have to shoot a wall to find it but its
there.

Lvl 7  - The treasure chest contain temporary invisibility. Don't waste
your key.

Lvl 9 - The 1st locked room contains food, and reflective shots.  The
2nd locked room holds death, a potion, and a key.

Lvl 10 - There is a false wall to the left of the 1st door so don't
bother using a key.  Also don't hit any of the magic tiles near the
bottom of the room, they don't open up the way to the potion.  Use the
lone magic tile on the right side of the map instead.

Lvl 11 - The treasure chest contains reflective shots.  In the area
with the 3 magic tiles, hit the upper left one to open the way to
legvel 12.

Lvl 12 - Awesome!  This level rocks.  It has a ton of stuff.  5
potions, food, lots of gold, and an extra armor potion.  Don't wanna
miss any of that stuff.  Oh yea.  The locked chest contains a magic
tile which makes some walls in the center of the map disappear.  Shoot
the lone wall in the center to reveal another magic tile.  Step on that
to get rid of some more walls.  Shoot the new wall, standing all by its
lonesome self, to exit.

Lvl 14 - Hit all the magic tiles to get a key and to openthe way to
both exits.  The one to the left goes to 15.   The one to the right
goes to 17.

Lvl 15 - Hit all the magic tiles to open the way to level 16.  The exit
in the upper left is to 18.  The treasure chest contains a stupid
treasure so don't waste your key.

Lvl 16 -  All right the secret room!  Yea.  There are four treasure
chests.  You only need 2 keys tho. Once you've hit the magic switch in
either 1 or 3 go to the food room.  Between the two plates of food is a
fake wall.  Shoot it to reveal another magic tile.  Step on it to open
the way to the exit and the clue.

1  2
  


       
     3  4

1 contains a magic tile which open the bottom wall of the food area.
2 contains a poison potion.
3 contains a magic tile which opens the top wall of the food area.
4 contains an extra magic potion!

Lvl 17 - Both exits go to 18.  The treasure on the bottom portion of
the map contains food while the treasure on the top contains 1 treasure
chest... whoopie...

Lvl 18 - Hey cool!  This is an original gauntlet level from the arcade.
I'm not sure which level but I know it definately is.  Only 1 secret
here.  In the upper right portion of the room shoot a wall to reveal 10
super shots.  Its along the very outter edge of the wall and has 3(?)
other blocks touching it I think.  It looks something like that if my
memory is correct.

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